Data visualization is important in the process of presenting information and knowledge from data sets, especially data sets that are high dimensional in nature. Such high-dimensional data sets are known to be referred to as “big data.” A data set characterized as big data is prohibitively large such that it is beyond the capabilities of commonly used software tools to manage/process the data, or at least to do so within a reasonable time frame.
Furthermore, the high dimensionality associated with big data typically results in significant difficulty in effectively presenting such data. Also, it is not uncommon for more than one user (e.g., data scientist) to have to work on the same data set and visualization effort. As a result, it is typical that significant amounts of computing resources and manpower must be expended to generate an effective data visualization using existing data visualization approaches.
As such, a need exists for improved data visualization techniques, especially when dealing with big data type data sets.